Tips for Corn Plant Care

Popcorn, corn pudding, corn cake are few samples of corn products. Corn is one of the most favorite foods in the world and everybody likes it.

The taste is sweet and savory. It can blend with another food. Thus, people are getting interested in growing corn in their home garden. However, it is often that they don’t know what to do for corn plant care.

If you are thinking the same way, then you can follow some tips about growing corn in your empty backyard garden. It will be more useful that your empty garden planted with vegetables like corn so you can enjoy it after.

– Choose the Seeds

There are plenty of corn types you can choose. The color of corn is also varied started from yellow to blue.

However, if you want fresh and crispy kernels, you should consider growing sweet corn. It tastes delicious and easy to be made into any kinds of dishes.

Sweet corn consists of various types which are normal, sugar enhanced, and super sweet. Those have different level in sweetness and also starched period.

– Soil and Time

Corn likes moistured soil, rich in nitrogen. It will be more beneficial if your garden had been planted with beans or peas before because it can increase the quality of soil for growing corn.

The soil then needs to be warm enough because the seeds cannot grow in cold soil. The temperature should be around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. If the soil in your garden isn’t warm enough, you can help by covering it with black plastic.

Make holes between the black plastic to give some spaces for planting seeds. The best time to grow corn is between May and June, so you can harvest on July.

– Planting and Corn Plant Care

Place 2 to 3 seeds in the soil with 1 to 2 inches depth. Give some space about 24-36 inches for each holes so the seeds have enough space to grow well.

It is important that you take care of the seedlings well by giving enough water especially when the weather gets warmer. You should increase the frequency of watering. Don’t fertilize them until they get 12 to 18 inches high.

– Harvest Time

After the silk emerges or about three weeks later, you will see the kernels tightly packed and fully filled. Then, it’s the best time to harvest the ears containing mature corns. You can harvest them manually or use some tools to help you cut the ears.

Corn plant care doesn’t need to be complicated. The most important thing is you keep the soil moistured and do the watering regularly. You must increase the amount of water when the weather gets hotter.

Some people are concerned in removing suckers which always appear at the bottom part of the plants. However, you don’t need to do anything to the suckers because they don’t give any harm of benefits to the corn. Hence, just focus on watering and controlling weeds when you think they are too crowded.